The 7 Best Ways To Get Ready For The Fall TV Season

The 2018-2019 TV season is just 25 days away. With summer wrapping up, students returning to school, fall activities slowly starting to commence, and that seasonal routine about to change, trying to catch up on a returning TV show or starting a new one, can be a challenge. Especially when it has numerous seasons. Luckily, times have changed. Thanks to technology, like TV itself, has changed throughout the years, so have the options on how to begin and catch up on watching stuff, without falling behind. Due to the number of options people are given, many tend to question which are the best ones? From a computer to just a remote, here are the seven best ways to get ready for the Fall TV season.

1. Stream

What was once foreign, has become the hottest thing of the generation. Now more then ever, people are logging onto Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, to catch up old television shows and start some new ones. This is also another way to escape those commercials and watch an episode of something without an interruption.

2. DVR

If your looking to catch old episodes of a show or won't be around at the time it's on at, DVR is the way to go. With DVR, all you have to do is find out when what you want to watch is on it and press record. With certain cable companies such as Direct TV, customers can record up to five shows at once. Who wouldn't want to record an episode of something they are interested in watching while something they want to watch without commercial interruptions is on?

3. Rent the seasons on DVD

While people might look at you weird for doing this, if you don't have DVR or are looking to save money and not use a streaming service, renting seasons of what it is your trying to watch from your local library, is not a bad idea. Yes, it's easier to turn on the TV and try to find that show you want to binge before the new season comes out however, keep in mind, not every network shows or has the rights to show repeats of what it is one might be trying to binge. This goes for Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime as well. Luckily, many libraries do carry seasons of television shows on DVD. You just need to travel and look.

4. Watch reruns!

One of the many great thing about cable is being given this opportunity. Between all the channels that are offered, there are many networks that carry repeats of shows throughout time. Some of them such as TBS, FX, FXX, Paramount Network, Freeform, The CW, Nick at Nite, My TV, among others, carry reruns of sitcoms, drama's, police procedurals, and other genres, all throughout the day and some if not, all of the evenings. So be prepared to flip to those channels and see Ross, Joey, Chandler, Rachel, Phoebe, Monica, or Jerry, Elaine, Kramer, and George. Let's not forget The Griffins or Sheldon, Leonard, Raj, Howard, Penny, and Amy, as 'Family Guy' and 'The Big Bang Theory' are highly syndicated like 'Friends' and 'Seinfeld'. Also, if you plan to pay for a streaming service just to see these four favorites, save your money. Thanks to syndication, you can catch them on more than one network.

5. Read

Other than watching, to get a better understanding of a show and it's characters, reading is the best way to learn more about them. Yes, you can learn a lot about characters and set in an episode or two however, because each episode only runs for a certain amount of time, you won't learn as much about them as you would in an article or wiki page.

6. Watch clips

Although no matter how hard you research, sometimes you can't always see an entire episode of something. Thankfully, websites such as Youtube and the network it's on, do contain them. Keep in mind, this might not be helpful in the long run but for a short period of time, it can help.

7. See if it's on on demand

Usually, you can find all seasons of a production on on demand. The most recent one will be free however, all the others will likely cost you. This also comes in handy when what your trying to begin or catch up on isn't syndicated, not carried on a streaming service, or when you can't leave the house to see if your local library has the current and past seasons on DVD.

To The Person Who Feels Suicidal But Doesn't Want To Die

Suicidal thoughts are thought of in such black-and-white terms. Either you have suicidal thoughts and you want to die, or you don't have suicidal thoughts and you want to live. What most people don't understand is there are some stuck in the gray area of those two statements, I for one am one of them.

I've had suicidal thoughts since I was a kid.

My first recollection of it was when I came home after school one day and got in trouble, and while I was just sitting in the dining room I kept thinking, “I wonder what it would be like to take a knife from the kitchen and just shove it into my stomach." I didn't want to die, or even hurt myself for that matter. But those thoughts haven't stopped since.

I've thought about going into the bathroom and taking every single pill I could find and just drifting to sleep and never waking back up, I've thought about hurting myself to take the pain away, just a few days ago on my way to work I thought about driving my car straight into a tree. But I didn't. Why? Because even though that urge was so strong, I didn't want to die. I still don't, I don't want my life to end.

I don't think I've ever told anyone about these feelings. I don't want others to worry because the first thing anyone thinks when you tell them you have thoughts about hurting or killing yourself is that you're absolutely going to do it and they begin to panic. Yes, I have suicidal thoughts, but I don't want to die.

It's a confusing feeling, it's a scary feeling.

When the depression takes over you feel like you aren't in control. It's like you're drowning.

Every bad memory, every single thing that hurt you, every bad thing you've ever done comes back and grabs you by the ankle and drags you back under the water just as you're about the reach the surface. It's suffocating and not being able to do anything about it.

The hardest part is you never know when these thoughts are going to come. Some days you're just so happy and can't believe how good your life is, and the very next day you could be alone in a dark room unable to see because of the tears welling up in your eyes and thinking you'd be better off dead. You feel alone, you feel like a burden to everyone around you, you feel like the world would be better off without you. I wish it was something I could just turn off but I can't, no matter how hard I try.

These feelings come in waves.

It feels like you're swimming and the sun is shining and you're having a great time until a wave comes and sucks you under into the darkness of the water. No matter how hard you try to reach the surface again a new wave comes and hits you back under again, and again, and again.

And then it just stops.

But you never know when the next wave is going to come. You never know when you're going to be sucked back under.

I always wondered if I was the only one like this.

It didn't make any sense to me, how did I think about suicide so often but not want to die? But I was thinking about it in black and white, I thought I wasn't allowed to have those feelings since I wasn't going to act on them. But then I read articles much like this one and I realized I'm not the only one. Suicidal thoughts aren't black and white, and my feelings are valid.

To everyone who feels this way, you aren't alone.

I thought I was for the longest time, I thought I was the only one who felt this way and I didn't understand how I could feel this way. But please, I implore you to talk to someone, anyone, about the way you're feeling, whether it be a family member, significant other, a friend, a therapist.

My biggest mistake all these years was never telling anyone how I feel in fear that they would either brush me off because “who could be suicidal but not want to die?" or panic and try to commit me to a hospital or something. Writing this article has been the greatest feeling of relief I've felt in a long time, talking about it helps. I know it's scary to tell people how you're feeling, but you're not alone and you don't have to go through this alone.

Suicidal thoughts aren't black and white, your feelings are valid, and there are people here for you. You are not alone.

Your Health Journey Is A Marathon, Not A Sprint

When you first start to do something, you have all of the motivation in the world to accomplish that goal set out in front of you, especially when it comes to being healthier. The problem is as you continue through this journey and food and laziness kick in, motivation slips. It's human, and it happens to everyone no matter how physically strong they are.

Trying to be healthier doesn't always mean losing weight. It can be so your knees don't ache as much, so you don't feel as out of breath climbing stairs, or any goal you have set for yourself. Being healthier is personal and different from person to person.

I will be the first to admit that there are plenty of changes I would love to make about myself. From my weight to my body type and many other things about myself inside and out. I am by no means the most confident person about how I look, but I have worked hard for the past year to be an overall healthier person.

Becoming healthier isn't about looking thinner or fitting into a specific size of clothes. It is about taking care of yourself from eating better to working out more. There comes a feeling of confidence in what your body can do if you put a little love in it.

Perfection takes time, and I know firsthand how frustrating trying to be healthier can be.

Pizza tastes so much better than salad. It is so easy to fall into a rhythm of something that seems never to change whether that is your weight or your mile time. Sadly, you can't build a city, or become healthier overnight.

We see people who are thinner, curvier, smarter, faster, and so much more than us. We all waste time comparing ourselves to people around us and on our timelines, but some of our biggest strengths are our individuality and the gift of getting back up after falling down.

All I can say is, please don't give up on your goal of being healthier because this is solely for you. We can have a great support system in the world and have everyone in our corner, but that isn't enough.

You need yourself. You need to know that if you don't entirely put yourself in this journey, then you won't fully succeed. Your commitment to bettering yourself can keep you going even if you want to give up.

Your motivation may not be at its peak level right now, and you may have every cell in your body screaming at you to quit. Don't do it. Prove to yourself that you can keep going no matter what. Not giving up will be worth it. The results and taking the hard way will make you a stronger person inside and out.

You can do this. You can do anything you want to accomplish if you just believe in yourself. You need to understand that becoming healthier takes endurance. There will be periods where you slow down and may not be going at your fastest pace. The difference is that you are not giving up and you are still trying and moving.

Don't treat becoming healthier as a sprint: short term and quick. That mentality will only leave you feeling deflated and defeated. It is a life-long marathon of pacing yourself and pushing yourself further than ever before.